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“Thank you for this post. I am a no poo newbie (four days on honey wash) and was on an urgent look out for a way to get clean feeling as my hair started to look real bad. Soda sounded too harsh for me (I have extremely fine hair and sensitive skin) so decided not to even try it. I have just done the egg white wash (kept for 15 minutes) and wow! my hair IS clean! How often do you use it? I am still processing all the information on the no poo and am not sure whether I should wash my hair immediately when it looks dirty (every day in my case) or wait it out. Does honey wash every day for 3 days and then egg white wash every 4th day sound reasonable to you? I will be very grateful for any suggestions 🙂 Great blog. Thank you for sharing this with us :)”

I got this lovely comment from Maria yesterday and she asked questions that I get sent quite often. She has very kindly agreed to let me reply in a post as I thought that the answers might interest a few fellow readers. But first, thank you Maria, for your lovely comment 🙂

I alternate between low poo and no poo. The reason being, as you may have read on here a few times, and all over my Facebook and Twitter accounts, I live in an area with crazy hard water. I know on the internet they say you can demineral with ACV and then no poo, but my hair was not a happy bunny with that and it didn’t work. It was obvious my hair still had a lot of mineral buildup after doing this. So, while I keep on researching and testing different approaches, in France I am very low poo and in Ireland no poo. I actually only found out about the honey wash from yourself, Maria and when I’m home in Ireland two weeks, Im definitely giving that a go 🙂

SO HOW OFTEN TO WASH YOUR HAIR? Before I answer, I want to just say, that I am a health practitioner and not a hairdresser. What I say here is from my journey going green with products for my health and to recommend to my patients. I am a woman however with very long hair, its my baby! I wont advise you on something that hasn’t worked on me and I couldn’t figure out why 😉 I now wash my hair once a week, maybe twice when its the change of seasons or if I am travelling, or in the pool quite a few times, for example. This was not always the case though. Pre-green cosmetics days, I am shocked to have to say I needed to wash every day and if going out, twice a day. I did this because I had very greasy roots, or so I thought. I actually have very dry hair and skin but using harsh products meant my skin so deprived of oils that it went in to over drive and made me a grease ball. I do have an oily (ish) tea spot on my face, but that’s because I have a sweet tooth!

Now, it’s twice, max, a week I wash my hair and in between, I use my homemade DIY dry shampoo. As I use the Oil Cleanse Method the front of my hair can get oily sometimes. A slight dusting of dry shampoo and Bobs your uncle! Let me know if you’d like the recipe!?

If you are moving straight from standard sulphate, and I mean any sulphate, products, you will transition which can last up to 6 weeks. Your hair could become oily, waxy, dull or very brittle to touch. In this transition you can do two things: 1) Wash daily until you notice your hair does not become so greasy and time between washes increases. 2) Wait it out. Washing once every 2 days then 3 days and so on. In between washes you can use the dry shampoo.

I would recommend 2. and unleash your creative energy on learning up dos! Trust me this passes quicker that you think. The reason behind my preference is that wet hair is very fragile, meaning you actually want you hair wet a few times as possible as to not damage it.

Another quick word on the transition. Quite often, we think we know our hair type but this was when using harsh products. When going green, people purchase products based for their presumed hair type. Wait until after the 6 weeks has passed and only then you will see what you hair needs. As I said, I thought I had greasy hair. However after transition it turned out I had dry hair but with mineral build-up. These issues need completely different products than greasy hair.

For the EGG SHAMPOO, you said Maria you had fine hair, therefore once a week of the egg shampoo might be grand in the beginning but not for too long. If you start to feel the ends of you hair are crunchy, you either have not washed out the egg enough or it’s too much. You see, egg can enhance the protein structure of hair. If you have fine hair, this will help but in time when you have stronger hair, you don’t need it as much. We lose protein in our structure the longer your hair is and through damage, hence not washing your hair too often. If you gotten to the crunchy stage, it can take a while to get moisture/oils balance back in to make a softer structure. Think of your hair like a Jenga tower. The blocks are the protein, water in between the blocks lubricates so the blocks can gently move (hair swaying) and the oil coats the tower, to keep the moisture in! Too many blocks (protein from egg), a ridged structure, crunchy hair! I’m hoping this makes sense!?

Over all, Maria, try getting your washing down to 3/4 times a week and slowly decrease. Use an egg wash once every two weeks until you have passed the transition and then let me know how you are getting on!? Any more questions, I would be happy to answer 🙂 Just let me know if I can say it in a post!

Before you start to read about my new no poo addiction, I am sorry to say there are no images to show you my new trick! My computer decided to go into hibernation. As soon as its back up and … Continue reading →